Published on Mar 31, 2005
A quick recap: the legendary Rob Halford fronted Judas Priest
from the band’s debut album in 1974 until about 1991 or 1992, at
which point he left for reasons that are not clear to me at this
point. For the rest of the ’90s and into the early 21st century he
fronted three different projects (Fight, Two, and Halford), while
the rest of Judas Priest spent several years in limbo before
finding a replacement singer and releasing two studio albums
between 1997 and 2001. In 2003 Halford collaborated with his old
bandmates on selecting the tracks and writing the liner notes for
an extensive Judas Priest box set, which inevitably sparked a
reunion of the classic lineup, which was publicly confirmed in
2004, at which point they embarked on a hugely successful
appearance on Ozzfest and began writing their first new album
together since 1990’s seminal
Painkiller.
The fruit of their labour is
Angel Of Retribution, released in March 2005. Before you
even hear a note of the music, you are greeted with darkly gorgeous
cover art in the classic Judas Priest style of old, as well as the
reassuring return of the band logo that adorned the albums of their
peak years. The presentation alone indicates the band has every
intention of reclaiming the throne of metal that they possessed for
so long in the 1970s and ’80s, and believe me, the music backs it
up strongly.
Ace axe-men Glen Tipton and K.K. Downing whip out their pointy
guitars and come blasting out of the gate on “Judas Rising” with
the return of the thunderous roar that fans have been salivating to
hear once more for the excruciatingly long gap of the last decade
and a half, accompanied by the unmistakable stratospheric vocals of
Rob Halford. His presence underscores just how much he was missed
on the last two albums, and he sounds right at home.
This album is not about trying to modernize their style by
catering to fleeting trends of the present — it is a celebration
and embrace of the classic Judas Priest sound that made them metal
superstars in the days before Metallica even released their first
album.
That being said, it’s important to mention that fans expecting a
direct continuation of the relentlessly intense and brutal attack
of
Painkiller might be disappointed. Make no mistake,
Angel Of Retribution has plenty of superbly aggressive songs
such as the evil sounding “Demonizer,” complete with Scott Travis’
double bass drum blasts, Slayer-type riffs, and Rob Halford’s
amazingly still intact glass-shattering dentist-drill vocals, but
the album is one of the most diverse ones they’ve ever released
from a songwriting standpoint.
I suspect that before the recording sessions began, the band
members all sat down and meticulously dug through their lengthy
back catalogue of albums in order to distill the essence of classic
Judas Priest, hence the fact that
Angel Of Retribution has a historical, introspective feel to
it due to the inclusion of songs that echo various points of their
career.
As mentioned before, “Demonizer,” along with “Judas Rising” and
“Hellrider,” are obvious nods to the metalfest of
Painkiller. The awesome “Deal With The Devil,” which I
believe to be one of their best songs ever, is a fist-pumping,
headbanging, barnstormer in the catchier vein of
British Steel-era Priest. Rife with catchy riffs, great
vocals, and extremely melodic and memorable solos, this is Judas
Priest in their element, and at their finest. “Wheels Of Fire” is
another infectious number perfect for the road, and serves as an
appropriate companion piece to their 1984 classic “Freewheel
Burning. There’s even a sad acoustic ballad with exquisite guitar
playing called “Angel,” though it’s basically a rehash of a song
they did in the ’80s whose name escapes me at the moment.
The first single, “Revolution,” is a valiant attempt at a
stadium anthem, but while the song isn’t bad, the chorus seems to
fall a bit flat. I think it was a very poor choice to be the
leadoff song for radio and video play, as it just doesn’t really
capture the energy of the band and is not an accurate indicator of
the overall sound of the album. It sounds like a bit of a
compromise to try to lure in a modern audience, on an album that is
otherwise very traditional metal.
A curious left turn is to be found in “Worth Fighting For,” an
excellent mid-tempo song that reminds me a bit of Collective Soul.
I know some of you are cringing at the thought of that, but the
mighty Priest pull it off with ease, showcasing their ability to
write music that’s a bit more mature and sophisticated than what
we’re used to seeing. And how about those beautiful dual guitar
harmonies?! I’m a real sucker for that stuff.
The album closer is sure to generate a lot of controversy.
“Lochness” sees the band plunge head first into Spinal Tap
territory with a 13-minute epic about the infamous monster. Now I’m
certainly not going to dispute the fact that we’re faced with a
mountain of cheese on this track, but I find the music quite
interesting. The first minute is an eerie intro that reminds me of
Tool, and the rest of the song sounds basically like what you’d get
if you tossed Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Giuseppe Verdi into a
blender. No doubt a lot of people will point to “Lochness” as the
absolute low point for Judas Priest, but I think there are enough
things to like about it. At the worst, it could be described as an
ambitious failure that’s nonetheless something different. They
could have replaced it with maybe two or three regular songs, but
what would be the point of that?
Angel Of Retribution may not be an instant classic like
British Steel, but it comes very close. I would probably
place it among the top five Judas Priest albums of all time
however, and I think that’s an impressive achievement for a band
that was away for such a long time. It’s great to have the Priest
back in such fine form, and I’m sure we’ll receive many more
quality releases such as
Angel Of Retribution from them.